As part of my Lenten discipline this year, I chose to intentionally keep Sunday as the Sabbath. Initially I wasn’t certain what that would really mean. Prior to this experience, I had always thought of keeping the Sabbath as attending worship services but not much more than that. Even being fully present at Sunday worship was becoming difficult for me. Over the last year, I had allowed my work to creep into my Sundays. As a psychologist, often working six days a week, my work week can be emotionally and sometimes spiritually taxing. And while I was not seeing patients on Sunday, I was finding it difficult to leave my work in the office. Additionally, I began to support and encourage doing “church business” on Sundays, setting up committee meetings for Sunday and doing church business before and after the service. It all seemed convenient and logical to me. Sunday was the one day that all of us had free.
Slowly, over time, I found my focus during the Sunday service drifting away from prayer and worship. I was caught up in the lists of people I needed to speak to and the things that I needed to get done. And, as a consequence, my relationship with God began to suffer.
In an attempt to find my way back to God, I began to see a spiritual director and she suggested that at least for Lent, I try keeping the Sabbath on Sundays. That would mean no work, no household chores, no shopping, and the hardest of all, no church business on Sundays. “No church business!” That seemed impossible to me. Even though I doubted that I could do it, I agreed to try.
So, with great trepidation, I began the practice of keeping the Sunday Sabbath. I began by making sure that all my household and business chores were completed by Saturday evening. This included grading papers for the classes that I teach at Montclair State University. Being slightly obsessive, I have a grading schedule to keep which prior to this experiment, often included 5-10 papers to be graded on Sundays.
On Saturday evenings as I prepared for bed, I prayed to welcome in the Sabbath and I prayed that the Sabbath would be a time for rest, play and renewal. During Lent, I attended the 8 a.m. service to avoid the temptation of doing “church business.” It allowed me to focus on worship and prayer and as a bonus, I was given the wonderful gift of the fellowship at the 8 o’clock coffee hour.
My partner, Sharon, and I began to really rest on Sundays. We read the Sunday paper, we talked, we napped and we had dinner together, something that is truly rare for us in our weekly lives. We had friends over for simple meals, we played games, and we laughed. I took the dog for long walks in the woods and read for fun. And, most importantly, I unplugged. I stopped obsessively checking my email and voice mail. On Sundays, I allowed God to take care of me and in return I feel very much loved and cared for by God.
I began showing up for God and God showed up for me in a really big way. I discovered the holy rhythm of working for six days and resting on the seventh. My worship was richer, and the Sabbath time of rest helped me to renew my relationship with Jesus. I stopped trying to control things on Sundays. And in my ceasing, God’s gifts began to multiply. I found that my personal relationships were becoming more rewarding and I had more energy and strength for my work week. My prayer life became richer, my faith deepened, and my heart felt like it began to expand with God’s love.
Keeping the Sabbath during Lent has been such a rich, restorative and nurturing experience for me. It has made me want to continue the practice of Sabbath keeping and share it with others. I now look forward to Sundays with great anticipation and I wonder what new experiences of God I will find each week. My hope and plan is to continue to keep the Sabbath throughout the year. I understand that there will be challenges to being faithful to this practice especially in my overly scheduled life. But, for me I know that the rewards are immeasurable.
Cheryl Notari is a long-time member of St. George’s in Maplewood, where she currently serves as Senior Warden.
